Understand
How Your Confidentiality Is Protected
You
should become familiar with your right of access to your student
educational records and know who can access your educational
records and how the institution protects your privacy rights.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA),
20 U.S.C. 1232g, 34 C.F.R. § 99.1 et seq. (sometimes
referred to as the Buckley Amendment), provides for protection
of individual student records. FERPA applies to educational
agencies and institutions that receive federal funds (K-12
schools, colleges and universities through graduate school).
Congress created three broad categories of rights:
-
Right
of access to student's educational records (inspect and
review)
-
Right
to control disclosure of information from records without
prior consent (subject to specific exceptions)
-
Right
to challenge and amend inaccurate or misleading information
Only
the institution maintaining the records may access them, and
the information is available only to those individuals who
"need to know." An institution may not release any
part of the documentation without the student's informed and
written consent. The U. S. Office of Education provides general
guidance for students on FERPA at www.ed.gov/offices/OM/fpco/ferpa/students.html.
Excerpted
from Virginia's College Guide for Students with Disabilities
(2003 Edition).
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